added by Johanna · updated 2y ago
Science Is Getting Less Bang for Its Buck
- Most scientists strongly favor more research funding. They like to portray science in a positive light, emphasizing benefits and minimizing negatives. While understandable, the evidence is that science has slowed enormously per dollar or hour spent. That evidence demands a large-scale institutional response. It should be a major subject in public p... See more
from Science Is Getting Less Bang for Its Buck by Patrick Collison
Johanna added 2y ago
- If it’s true that science is becoming harder, why is that the case?Suppose we think of science—the exploration of nature—as similar to the exploration of a new continent. In the early days, little is known. Explorers set out and discover major new features with ease. But gradually they fill in knowledge of the new continent. To make significant dis... See more
from Science Is Getting Less Bang for Its Buck by Patrick Collison
Johanna added 2y ago
- The picture this survey paints is bleak: Over the past century, we’ve vastly increased the time and money invested in science, but in scientists’ own judgement, we’re producing the most important breakthroughs at a near-constant rate. On a per-dollar or per-person basis, this suggests that science is becoming far less efficient.
from Science Is Getting Less Bang for Its Buck by Patrick Collison
Johanna added 2y ago
- On average, research teams nearly quadrupled in size over the 20th century, and that increase continues today. For many research questions, it requires far more skills, expensive equipment, and a large team to make progress today.
from Science Is Getting Less Bang for Its Buck by Patrick Collison
Johanna added 2y ago
- What’s causing the productivity slowdown? The subject is controversial among economists, and many different answers have been proposed. Some have argued that it’s merely that existing productivity measures don’t do a good job measuring the impact of new technologies. Our argument here suggests a different explanation, that diminishing returns to sp... See more
from Science Is Getting Less Bang for Its Buck by Patrick Collison
Johanna added 2y ago
- But there’s a different point of view, a point of view in which science is an endless frontier, where there are always new phenomena to be discovered, and major new questions to be answered. The possibility of an endless frontier is a consequence of an idea known as emergence.(...) The mere fact of emergent levels of behavior doesn’t necessarily im... See more
from Science Is Getting Less Bang for Its Buck by Patrick Collison
Johanna added 2y ago